Apple Developing Top Secret Vehicle Operating System In Canada

Apple Inc. has dozens of software engineers in Canada building a car operating system, a rare move for a company that often houses research and development projects close to its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Many of the engineers working in Canada were hired over the past year and about two dozen came from BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX, a leading automotive software provider, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing details of a secret project.

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TheSteve - 10/26/2016 11:53:24 AM

0 Boost

So let's recap:

1) Apple is working on a secret autonomous car project (say the rumors, conjecture, and speculation)

2) Apple is experiencing delays, so their secret autonomous cars will ship later than expected (say the rumors and speculation, for lack of tangible output)

3) Apple's secret autonomous car project has been disbanded (say the rumors and speculation, even though there is no proof the project ever existed)

4) Apple is criticized for taking on such a big and complex project as their (rumored, speculated, and not-proven-to-ever-have-existed) autonomous car project.

And now...

5) Apple is said to be working on a top-secret "autonomous vehicle operating system".

For those of you folks who are NOT computer programmers, whenever you write an operating system, it is always done for:
- Specific hardware, such as a specific Intel CPU (or compatible)
- Input interfaces and devices that have specific standards and (software) drivers (e.g., USB 3.0). This is how the car senses the environment.
- Output controller and devices. This is how the OS controls the autonomous car.

The gravity of the statement above is that NONE of this stuff is standardized in the industry! Bill Gates wrote MS-DOS for an existing IBM-PC hardware platform. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak wrote Apple's OS for hardware they themselves built. If Apple is indeed working on an autonomous car OS, then either (a) they believe they'll dictate hardware and software standards to autonomous car manufacturers, or (b) they've teamed up with someone already, like maybe Tesla?

Or #5 could just be another rumor, like the previous items.

Agent009 - 10/26/2016 12:51:03 PM

+1 Boost

I agree with you 100%, but I wanted to clarify Microsoft bought MSDOS, they never created the code, they simply added to it.

MorePower - 10/26/2016 10:18:38 PM

+2 Boost

adding = name change from "PC DOS" to "MS DOS" with a Microsoft label